That’s a good question, one that Benita and I’ve bantered back and forth.
My position is that this comic is noir or at least nourish because of its moral ambiguity, urban setting, crime and criminals, and its celebration of doomed and/or fatalistic characters. We also have femme fatales, police, hard-luck heroes, brutal action, and gangsters (meta-villains, usually). Spire City is maze-like, all encompassing, a grimy urban chasm with no exits.
There are some ways that Johnny Saturn doesn’t fit the standard definitions of noir. For one, private investigators aren’t the main characters; police procedurals aren’t a plot standard for us; and the art is not high key chiaroscuro or black & white. Is that enough to disqualify us? I don’t believe so.
I’ve often stated that my personal specialty is noble, stoic characters with sad, fatalistic quests. As far as I’m concerned, Johnny Saturn is still as gritty and hardboiled as they come, so I’m sticking its noir title.
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